Year: 2015
Type: conference-abstract
Abstract: History will undoubtedly define the last few years as the dawn of immunotherapy for oncology, even though a vision of exploiting our natural defenses to eradicate cancer as an invading enemy, foreign although from inside, dates back over a century. Achievements during the past few years have been remarkable: for the first time, a cancer vaccine has been shown to improve survival; blocking antibodies to the immune checkpoint molecules, cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 and programmed death 1, has achieved dramatic benefit across a spectrum of challenging solid and liquid tumors, including apparent cures for advanced melanoma, a cancer that was previously regarded as being as deadly as glioblastoma; and chimeric antigen receptor T cells can induce durable remissions in end-stage leukemia patients. Such results have established immunotherapy as a cornerstone of cancer treatment and have generated great hope in the cancer community of patients, families, and clinicians. Nonetheless, overall efforts to tap the potential of the immune system to effectively attack cancer are in relatively early stages. Durable benefit is limited to subsets of patients, and some types of cancer respond better than others. Unfolding the mysteries underlying variability of response across patients and cancer indications, along with continued development of additional novel immune-based therapeutics, will undoubtedly contribute to the optimal development of immunotherapies for oncology.
Source: Neuro-Oncology
Authors: David A. Reardon, Michael Weller
Language: English
Subfield: Oncology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4247870457